TWO UNRELATED INCIDENTS BRING SOME SPIRITUAL INSIGHT

by David R. Snow

Sometimes a combination of life’s little incidents comes to a confluence. Occasionally two or more ideas collide, quite unexpectedly. Usually this occurrence brings insight. When this resultant insight is revealed, especially when the subjects are of a spiritual nature, I choose to call it the work of the Holy Spirit.

I have recently been going through two separate experiences at the same time. One experience involves some activities within our ministry, and the other is the fact that I had just had cataract surgery on one of my eyes.

The new eye works quite well.

My wife, Carolyn and I started the ministry to try to be about the work of Jesus in helping the down and out and the poor. So, we put in a feeding kitchen and a thrift store downtown. But after two years, we have discovered that much of the need is in the housing area. So, we are now in the process of constructing a small homeless shelter.

The downtown building (circa 1875)

That houses the ministry at present

The shelter consists of an old Scout Hut moved in from another city and is almost ideal for our purposes. We will have to make few alterations for it to serve the use we intend. We scraped off a reasonably flat place and the movers did their thing. We are now in the process of wiring and plumbing and painting and patching, etc, hoping to get it functional and full of folks needing shelter in a few more days.

The building came in three pieces and

it really didn’t look like much at first.

The building has been moved in and blocked up.

Here the movers were just finishing their work.

The building has log siding and is nestled in a little low place between woods. Its uniqueness, setting low in the woods makes looking down on it from the road a very pleasant feeling. It looks like it belongs there, in that particular place. This also must be the work of the Holy Spirit.

One can kind of get the idea here from the

top of the hill. The ditch is for the water

line, which is now installed and covered.

I must admit that the phrase “O ye of little faith” haunts me occasionally, especially when it comes to surgery and to my eyesight in this case. I look to scripture to keep my spirit up. My key words were blind and seeing So, I’m looking at that passage about John the Baptist sending some people to ask Jesus if He was the Messiah, or should they look for another. The word had come to John in prison about the healings and the mighty works that Jesus was doing.

Both Mathew and Luke report that Jesus instructed these men to go tell John that the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised and the gospel is preached to the poor.

Being concerned about my own sight I take comfort in this. So I’d been thinking about the possibilities of a song about this blind seeing and lame walking, but the last line about the gospel being preached to the poor had not yet spoken to me.

Until one day I’m out walking and praying and look down on the new shelter--thinking about this possible song, thinking about the blind who see, and the lame who are now walking and the deaf who are now hearing—and I look down at the building that will soon house those who were without before they came. And, then it comes to me.

The providing of a bed and a bath and clean clothes and life-sustaining food is just touching the surface. Once the stomach is full and some of the creature comforts are in place, then one is ready to receive the word. Then the gospel can be preached, both in deed and in word.

The thoughts come tumbling by now. It is really all about Jesus. The blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised—and the good news is preached to the poor. This is what we have really been about all along, this preaching of the gospel to those who can receive it, to those who will receive it.

Thus a combination of life’s incidents comes to a confluence and insight occurs and the Holy Spirit has once again revealed Jesus. Now, maybe I can work some more on that song—now I’m beginning to understand the last line about the gospel and the poor and the preaching.

Perhaps this picture best illustrates

what we are really about with all this.